Patna, May 18: Hoisting the Tricolour on the Independence Day and the Republic Day would no more be the monopoly of top political leaders and senior officers. This opportunity, considered to be a matter of pride, would now be extended to the most backward sections of the society — the Mahadalits.
The Bihar general administration department (GAD) today issued letters to all the district magistrates (DMs) for organising the flag-hoisting ceremonies in the villages of Mahadalits on the occasion of the Independence Day and the Republic Day. The seniormost person from the Mahadalit community would hoist the National Flag in such functions.
Of the 22 castes under the Schedule Castes category, the Bihar government has accorded the status of Mahadalits to 21. The government is of the opinion that the people belonging to these 21 castes are the most backward among the Dalits. There are about 41.25 lakh Mahadalit families in Bihar.
The GAD letter states that the flag-hoisting functions would be organised at 8am. It also talks in details about the arrangements to be made for organising the functions.
The letter says a government teacher would be deputed at the functions for giving information on the events related to freedom struggles. A government official would mobilise resources for the function and supervise it.
The designated government officers would have to hold meetings before finalising the modalities of the functions. They would have to hold parleys with villagers for organising special programme like cleanliness drives.
For each function to be organised at Mahadalit villages, a fund of Rs 500 would be provided by the GAD. The department would disburse funds to the districts from the contingency funds as in case of organising functions in the district headquarters.
“The purpose of this move is to instil a sense of belongingness and pride among people of the Mahadalit community,” GAD principal secretary Deepak Kumar told The Telegraph.
These functions would also be used to spread awareness on Right to Service (RTS) Act among people of the Mahadalit community. Bihar would enter the era of RTS on August 15 this year. It would guarantee people 20 government services in stipulated time.
